Amazon Starts Selling New $50 Echo Dot, White Echo Too

This morning, Amazon unveiled a new Echo Dot that will cost you and I just $49.99 when it ships next month. The company also announced a new white version of its speaker-equipped Amazon Echo that ships in a couple of weeks.

The Echo Dot, for those not familiar, is the smaller puck version of Amazon’s Echo that is meant to work in any room without taking up much space. It comes equipped with Alexa for all of your voice-activated needs, is small enough to be tucked away on a shelf, and can even be paired with your home speakers for a better audio experience. Echo Dot does play music, but the on-board speaker for it isn’t exactly a musical beast.

With the new Echo Dot, outside of the color choices of black or white and a “new sleek and compact design,” Amazon says that it has been upgraded with “a more powerful speech processor, which delivers improved far-field speech recognition accuracy.” I’m not sure what was in the original $100 unit that I’m not feeling burned by, but improved far-field speech recognition is a good thing. At half the cost ($49.99), this is going to be a tough pass for those of you have yet to buy into the Amazon Echo and Alexa world.

Also, Amazon want you to buy a lot of the new Echo Dot, so they are selling them individually for $49.99 or in bundles. You can buy five and get a sixth free if you use code DOT6PACK or buy 10 and get 11 and 12 free with code DOT12PACK.

As I mentioned in the opener, the regular Amazon Echo now comes in white as well, at the same $179.99 price.

The new Echo Dot is up for pre-order today and arrives October 20. The white Echo is up for pre-order today as well and arrives September 28.

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iluvthesoftsoft

Amazon is looking to kick Google and Apple to the curb.

Pakmann2k

My two cents on this and the echo. After owning an echo for 9 months, it never earned a spot in my living room but it especially shines in my kitchen. Timers, music, adjusting my ac, and even random info stuff, it is a great hands free helper in a room where your hands are usually full or dirty. I will never place mine in my living room but i found it completely helpful and entertaining in the kitchen. The “dot” will earn a spot in my bedroom attached to my stereo where it will get the same type of use but with a different purpose. Adjusting my air, hands free music, alarms, and other tidbits will make the 50$ worth it but not really the 175. Is it the R2D2 brain child running my home, nope, but it is a great hands free device with multiple purposes if used within it’s limitations.

Pakmann2k

Randomly, for everything else in my house, i use bluetooth and wifi and my old droid turbo is the remote. With only running BT and wifi, the battery lasts forever and i can run all my lights, remote start my car, operate my garage, turn on my pool, control my TVs, and of course, control my nest stuff.

Raven

I already have a regular Echo, can anyone tell me if they automatically sync their profiles so that if I set up a skill on one they all automatically get it?

PerhapsNever

Skills are shared, but STILL no multi-room audio and I would recommend changing the wake word on each one.

Bryan

They also announced new ESP technology that allows multiple Echo’s to determine which one you were closest to, so that only that one responds to your request. If that works as they say, that will be huge for using multiple units within earshot of each other.

PerhapsNever

If that works, that would be AWESOME. Hearing all my Echos say “Discovery completed. I found x number of smart home devices” at the same time is a bit creepy. lol

Diego Diaz

Just in time for Google Home to launch ugh

Bryan

I was holding out for Google Home, but honestly, I may just skip that and go all in with Echo. With Google’s track record of abandoning their pet projects I don’t want to invest in their stuff, only to have it dropped when it underperforms or Google gets bored with it. At this point, Amazon seems to be fully invested in Echo.

Diego Diaz

That’s true… and at $50 I guess getting an Echo either way is not a bad deal since I would wanna use it at least in 2 rooms anyway.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

Kellen can you review this? I mean with Google Home Launching as well I think it’ll be worth it.

mcdonsco

Can’t wait for Google Home. I’ve been looking forward to Google’s answer to the echo. Here’s to hoping it’s not just as good, but better.

Tyler Durden

if you want better you have to wait for apple 😉

BobButtons

Why don’t people get it? Apple already invented everything that gets released by other companies. They just don’t let you know they’ve invented it until they release their own.

Puck85

i have no idea what these things do that my tablet/ google/ siri don’t already do.

It blows my mind that Amazon can trick people into buying new hardware just to get access to what is essentially a software assistant. It’s actually likely that Alexa will come to PCs and Macs shortly – so why buy one of these things? This product category has always felt like 90% advertising, 10% substance.

Daistaar

You have to hold, touch and interact with a device to do these things. With the Dot, Amazon hasn’t tricked you (since you haven’t bought anything) but give you the ability to do this all hands free. When Motorola allowed you to trigger Google Now by voice without touching your phone it was innovative, but when Amazon does it they’re tricking people?

Puck85

I feel like it is not useful because you already have all the hardware necessary to get access to Alexa. Amazon has created a false perception that these devices have something that you don’t already have. To do that, they’ve limited use of Alexa to these devices (for now). There are already ways to set up your Mac/ smartphone/ other devices to respond to your voice and control your home, hands free.

mcdonsco

Dude, you do realize not everyone out there are Geeks like we are right? They don’t want, NOR KNOW HOW, to set up shlt like this, they just want to have it and for it to work.

How you don’t get that is baffling to me.

Raven

Yes, but it does not work nearly as well for the whole family for home automation. It allows my wife (who doesn’t like opening an app on her phone to do it) and my daughter who doesn’t have a phone to easily control the lights in our living room and smart thermostat. If it wasn’t for those tie ins though I would not use it over Google Now for Q&A type things.

Daistaar

True, Alexa is most likely not hardware dependent and could be released as an application, but the allure comes from not touching any device to access information and control devices. This is my scenario; hopefully it makes sense as to it’s usefulness.

I have a number of WeMo devices that control entrance lights with motion detection, living room lighting, cooling, bedroom ambiance, etc. I have just purchased another device to turn on a baby nightlight if the baby cries at night (WeMo switch with 1 minute on) based on sound detection using IFTTT recipes.

While my wife and I have the app on phone or tablet readily accessible, she will son be able to just say “Alexa, dim the lights to 30 percent” instead of grabbing the device, unlocking, opening the app changing settings. She can say “Alexa, turn off the AC” and avoid the same process. Similarly we can say “Goodnight” and have everything shut down.

Alexa is coming to their newest tablets within a few months actually.
I really like my full size Echo primarily for the speakers, and for the ease of use. I didn’t think I would ever want one until I had one.

frosty_nerd

It’s no trick at all. I love these things! All of those other devices require physical interaction by the user. The Alexa is always listening for your commands. I use these specifically for home automation, I have my lights, thermostat, garage door and entertainment center all tied in so that I can control them from every room that has an Alexa. Additionally, I’m a pretty heavy Spotify user, and listening and controlling music through these throughout my house is a breeze (being that it is voice controlled, my wife and kids can listen to their own music as well without needing my phone to control it).
While Alexa’s intelligence is not as good Google now or Siri, it’s 3rd party integration is fantastic. The ability for developers to build custom skills that integrate with the voice interaction has really helped take it to the next level.

Bryan

This, x1000! Love our Echo. I’m thinking of going this route instead of waiting for Google Home. Come on Google, announce more already so we not what you’ve got up your sleeve!

mcdonsco

A) It works amazingly well, better than Now or Siri and it’s always listening which you cant get with Siri and only can get on Nexus devices and

B) As a speaker the sound quality is actually quite good. I think someone would be hard pressed to find a BT speaker that sounds as good for the same price.

C) It’s VERY useful; just in general. Kitchen timers, random bits of info you need/want etc.

But hey, it’s not for everyone, I get it, but to say people are tricked into it when its pretty obvious you have zero experience using one is a bit much.

Times like this I really wish down voting was still a thing on disqus.

kookal123

Can you use it as sort of a bluetooth receiver? So I could plug it into my existing speaker and connect to the Dot from my phone through bluetooth and play the local music on my phone?

mcdonsco

Not sure, I know for sure you can pair any Bluetooth device to it and use it as a Bluetooth speaker only if you want. They advertise the dot (and echo) as being able to be connected to any other speaker for improved sound. That’s what I plan on doing with the dot at least in my office, hooking it up to my receiver/speakers to play through those.

sc0rch3d

Has anyone seen Alexa benefit your life in such a way that it’s blended into the background of your daily routine?

mcdonsco

Admittedly we don’t use ours constantly but we definitely use it almost as muscle memory when we do and pretty much daily.

The other thing to consider that I think people often overlook is the sound quality of the speaker itself as just a Bluetooth speaker alone. You would be hard-pressed to find one for the same money that sounds as good.

Raven

Yes, but only for home automation control. My family uses it all of the time for light control in our living room and I occasionally use it for temperature control with our smart thermostat. It beats pulling out your phone and opening an app to turn the lights from “Bright” to “TV Time”.

compwagon

For controlling lighting (via SmartThings) as well as our home theater (via SmartThings combined with Logitech Harmony), it’s absolutely great. You can say, “Alexa, turn on the Blu-ray” and the lights go down, TV turns on, inputs get changed, etc. With a little scripting, I even set it up where we can say “alexa, turn on another episode” and it will load up the next episode of the show we are currently watching on the DVR, which can be really helpful when our toddler is watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

That being said, if we didn’t have BOTH of those, ours would get used a few times a week, vs. at least 10 times a day as currently.

PerhapsNever

AS @compwagon:disqus stated, once you get things automated, using Alexa becomes second nature. When I get up in the morning, I tell Alexa to disarm my alarm system, turn on the kitchen lights and start the water pot. That’s just one of a hundred different uses we have for our Echos.

sc0rch3d

“Alexa, change the baby” ??? 🙂

PerhapsNever

LOL Those days are WAY gone…

I would, however, love an automatic door opener and be able to say “Alexa, let the dogs out” and have it open the door for them, let them out and then open the door for them to come back in. 🙂

T S

Use it daily for smart home devices, listening to music, and in the kitchen. The kitchen is the best spot for one of these as it will do measurement conversions and set timers without reaching for your phone.

michael arazan

Alexa is great…… In Mr Robot

Daistaar

Just preordered one black dot to assist in verbal control of the Wemo devices at home. If it works well, I’ll look into more. Home is just getting smarter and smarter.